Geagea to Asharq Al-Awsat: Solution Lies in Early Elections

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Geagea to Asharq Al-Awsat: Solution Lies in Early Elections

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

The head of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, Samir Geagea, said that the only exit for the current crisis in Lebanon was the holding of early parliamentary elections, “as the ruling majority has failed to find solutions.”

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Geagea said that the ruling majority does not know how to govern nor let others manage the country, and “people are stuck” in the problem.

Stressing that the LF was at the heart of anti-government protests, he noted that people returned to the streets “because they saw that the constitutional institutions, on which they relied to resolve the situation, have failed to do so and further deepened the crisis.”

Geagea said that the relationship with resigned-Prime Minister Saad Hariri was maintained at the “minimum level”.

“We and the Future Movement are strategically aligned, but our views differ on how to run the State,” he affirmed.

He went on to say that Hariri “has disappointed us with many things that happened previously and the time was not at all appropriate to support him to head the government.”

The head of the LF admitted that there was no strategy that brings together opposition parties, namely the Future Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and the Kataeb.

“Other parties, who think like us, don’t want to get into big strategies now”, he remarked.

Geagea said he believed that the ruling majority has proven to be ineffective for three years now, and in the last three months, it has proven to be “powerless, deficient, and corrupt.”

“I cannot imagine that a country has witnessed a popular uprising for three months, in conjunction with a rapidly deteriorating economic and financial situation, and the ruling authority is doing nothing,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“In my opinion, this is the actual crisis. It’s that you have an existing ruling majority that does not know how to rule, nor let others rule, and people are stuck in the middle,” he commented.

Asked about the renewal of the street protests across Lebanon, the LF president said: “People took to the streets again with such intensity, pulse, and strength because there is no other way out.”

“There was an exit available for the ruling majority when Hassan Diab was designated. There was an opportunity to form a government with different specifications that apply to the current conditions, to restore confidence in the state of Lebanon, to find solutions to economic, financial, and living conditions, or to give a minimum level of confidence for the people to go to their homes,” he lamented.

“Unfortunately, the opportunity was lost… and the people returned to the streets,” he said.

Geagea said that recent street developments have “sounded the alarm over the need for the rest of the parties to wake up and realize the seriousness of what is happening.”

In this regard, he underlined that the only solution was the holding of early parliamentary elections, saying: “This issue is strongly present on the table of the LF bloc; how can we convince the other parliamentary blocs because we do not see any other solution.”

“Do they want the country to collapse before their eyes, while they remain attached to their seats, and no one moves?!” He asked.

Geagea also emphasized that the goals set by the protesters “meet the objectives previously announced by the LF,” with regards to the “resignation of the government, the formation of a transitional cabinet of independents, and other goals.”

“In the present situation, we can be heading towards early parliamentary elections,” he remarked.



Yemeni Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Have Lost Nearly 30% of their Military Capabilities

This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
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Yemeni Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Have Lost Nearly 30% of their Military Capabilities

This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)
This handout photo released by the US Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) shows a US F/A-18 Super Hornet attack fighter jet taking off from the US Navy's Nimitz-class USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at sea on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Hunter DAY / DVIDS / AFP)

The Iran-backed Houthis are in disarray over escalating American strikes targeting military and security sites, as well as weapons depots belonging to them, Yemeni Minister of Information Moammar Al-Eryani said, revealing that the group has lost nearly 30% of its military capabilities.

Al-Eryani told Asharq Al-Awsat that the recent strikes have directly hit "the military capabilities of the Houthi group, targeting mainly infrastructure related to ballistic missiles and drones, which were used to threaten international maritime navigation in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb, and the Gulf of Aden."

US President Donald Trump had ordered the start of the military campaign against the Houthis on March 15, pledging to destroy their capabilities.

In the past four weeks, the Houthis have been hit by 365 air and naval strikes, field reports said. The campaign has been primarily targeting fortified bunkers and military warehouses, especially in the group's strongholds in the governorates of Saada, Sanaa, Amran, and Hodeidah.

"Our assessment, based on our field sources, is that the militia has lost 30% of its capabilities, and this number is rising as military operations continue,” Al-Eryani said.

The minister also spoke of "surprises” that will please Yemenis in the coming weeks.

Trump said Monday that the US campaign against the Houthis has been “very successful militarily.”

“We’ve really damaged them,” he said, adding that “we’ve gotten many of their leaders and their experts.”

The Yemeni Minister of Information considered the powerful strikes “as not enough to end the Houthi threat, especially since the militia is still receiving logistical support from Iran through multiple smuggling routes."

Last week, Britain’s The Telegraph quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that Iran had ordered military personnel to leave Yemen to avoid direct confrontation with the US.

Al-Eryani called for “keeping military, political, and economic pressure” on the Houthis and increasing control on the sources that provide arms to the Houthis. He also called for “supporting the legitimate forces to enable them to take control of all Yemeni territory."
Al-Eryani confirmed that the Houthis have recently suffered significant human losses at various leadership levels, yet the militias have avoided announcing such losses for fear of undermining the morale of their fighters.

Last month, Yemeni Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Mohsen Mohammed al-Daeri told Asharq Al-Awsat that the country’s armed forces and all military formations were at a high state of readiness to respond firmly to any Houthi attacks or provocations.

Al-Daeri said the Houthis bear full responsibility for the recent escalation, the imposition of international sanctions, and the militarization of regional waters, which have worsened the humanitarian and economic situation for Yemenis.